Please pray for my wife, Angie, and myself. As it says in my recently restored faith statement: "More than an Inquirer less than a Catechuman" This has been my (our?) situation for a while now. Our priest spoke to me last September suggesting he would like to see us, my wife and myself and our two daughters, become Catechmen by Christmas time, but when he talked to my wife and I together she indicated she wasn't ready yet. He has recently asked to meet with us privately again and we will meet this coming Saturday. The problem is she's shown so little progress in the interim as to appear to even be moving backwards. This has been and periodically is a bone of contention between the two of us. For my part I see her making no effort to learn or overcome the difficulties she has with this (part of which is being a former Roman Catholic who converted to Protestantism and who sees Orthodoxy as reminding her too much of that), she sees my as being overly inpatient (I've been waiting about 30 months so far). Both, I think, are true. I will start another thread in the converts forum if anyone has advice.

Please pray for us.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

Update: My wife and I met with our priest who proposed letting the girls and I become catachumen sooner rather that later, while suggesting that this was all the further it would go for now and that we would wait for her to get on board before baptisms and Chrismations.

This did not make her happy, in fact angry would be a better word for her initial response after leaving the church, but she did calm down later and while still reluctant to consent she has not given a final answer and agreed that she likely will not until after this next week. In the meantime she has a dance rehearsal, a dance performance, dance classes for both the girls, parent/teacher conferences for both the girls and a two day retreat. I am in no way going to argue with her about sitting on that decision for a week and consider it to be a wise move on her part.

Now about the retreat I mentioned. With a little proding from myself and our daughters and a lot of proding from the women of the church she consented to go on the Church's women's retreat this weekend. The speaker is an Orthodox nun. She also seemed to be overcoming some of her fear of socializing during coffee hour today.

The bad news, so to speak, our priest asked her if we would want to get our house blessed a week from Thursday. This sent her into another freak out. I'm trying to encourage put off the decision until at least next Sunday, when this weeks frenzy will be behind her.

Keep us in your prayers.

Thanks,Maximum Bob

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

We picked up my wife up after the retreat . She learned some things made at least one new friend and got to know the ladies who stand on the over side of the church a lot better. They spoiled her with goodies catering to her dietary restrictions. Unfortunately she felt somewhat claustrophobic and crowded. She didn't sleep the best either.

She's definitely still not up for the house blessing again this year from what she says.

Still hasn't given an answer yet on our Priest's suggestion regarding the girls and myself becoming catechumen . My job there will be to remind her that we do need to give him an answer at some point, without putting to much pressure on her as to what that answer will be. Keep praying for us.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

On the ride up to church this AM my wife, by that time, more rested continued to remember more stuff she learned and to dwell more on the positives. That I anticipated based on past experience, the next part I did not. One of the things she talked about was that she'd had conversations with a couple women, one a Matushka, about the idea of having her name day be Nov. 8th the Synaxis of the Archangels. As she put it there are several of them that have been making themselves known to her and her name is Angela. From there I brought up the part about needing to give Father an answer and regarding the girls and myself taking the next step first. Her response was that she would prefer to take the next step together and to tell Father that she wanted to spend Lent really praying about and looking into things and we would see where we were after that. This is the first time she's given any sort of time line to any part of the process. Next I shared how I was leaning toward Saint Innocent of Alaska as a Patron Saint and in another positive move she then turned the topic to Patron Saints for our two daughters and suggested we spend Lent looking at that too.

But it gets better yet. After church on the way home she shared that she had felt very impressed just this morning that we should consider one particular family as sponsors for our family. As it happens that same thought had occurred to me for the first time this morning as well. This kind of floored both of us, in a good way.

Just as a tie to the above the wife of the family mentioned is one of the friends referenced above, and coincidentally she's also one of the ladies who was pushing the most for my wife to go to the retreat this weekend. Well that's all for now. Keep us in your prayers but include some thanks for answered prayer this time.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

Another update for the second week in a row my wife has joined my daughters and I in going up for the blessing from our priest after service. This is twice in the service last week, and once each in two services this week. In the year and 1/2 we've been going to our church the only other time she's done this was last year at Pascha (she really wanted that red egg) and even then she required a bit of persuasion. These times she did it completely on her own. She did confide after last week she was still struggling with it but, to me at least, seemed more comfortable this week.

She's also gotten to the point with icons where she will kiss her fingers and touch them, but is not yet comfortable being over and kissing the icons directly with her lips. Keep her in your prayers.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

My wife has continued in going up for blessings. We are scheduled to go talk to our Priest again this Saturday. The girls have identified possible Patron Saints for themselves. That gives us all possible Patron Saints and sponsors. My wife is reading the book about Crazy John of Athens - fool for Christ. So, naturally with all this happening she has started feeling sick. I think spring allergies and not enough rest, but keep us in your prayers.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

She got on antibiotics and is feeling much better. Thanks for your prayers Gayle, SolEx01.

Well, we met with our priest today and discussed progress in moving forward towards becoming catechumen. My wife indicated she wasn't ready yet but would be soon. Our priest suggested maybe Dec. she said sooner. He suggested Sept. she said sooner. Our Priest suggested The feast of All Saints of North America, Sunday July 7th or All Saints Sunday, June 30th or two weeks from tomorrow June 2nd. While my wife did not commit to any of those yet but our priest did say we would have to talk to our potential sponsors soon especially if it we were going to become catechumen on June 2nd and my wife has indicated we need to talk to them tomorrow. I'm excited but a little nervous that this is too good to be true, keep praying for us.

Logged

Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.